


Time is out of Joint

by Annariel



Series: Season 2b [6]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Timeline, Female Protagonist, Gen, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-13
Updated: 2010-08-13
Packaged: 2017-10-11 01:56:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/107050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Helen makes her bid to put the timelines back in place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time is out of Joint

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Fredbassett for beta-reading.

Helen was sitting in Lester's office, drinking tea with him. It was a routine they had somehow fallen into. She wasn't quite sure when it had happened but it was one of the few moments of the day when she didn't feel the need need to be constantly on her guard. The faint aroma of tea, never a drink she'd been particularly attracted to with its overtones of propriety and gentility, was strangely relaxing. Lester rarely pushed for anything. They drank tea, sometimes they barely exchanged a word, sometimes they talked trivialities, and sometimes the trivialities masked something more important.

If anything, Lester was more cautious than she was, but he was determined to do something. She had learned to read him, the way he said some things and didn't say others. He fascinated her. They were so totally different and yet cold hard steel ran through Lester and she admired that. Since the game was all politics right now, and he was a political predator, she let him get on with it. She followed his subtle directions and waited patiently for her own moment to arise.

"I've found Abigail." He surprised her by offering the information. She'd asked him to look, more from habit than anything else, and had assumed he was making inquiries, but she hadn't expected him to tell her the outcome. She hadn't expected there to be an outcome.

"Where is she?"

"Paisley, there's a big internment camp up there."

"Anti-terrorism?" asked Helen.

"You have to ask?"

"So what now?" she asked. She'd heard bad things about the camps but if Abby was there at least she wasn't dead, or in some MI5 interrogation room somewhere.

Lester's mouth straightened out into a thin line. "I'm working on it."

He looked tired. Helen deduced he was running out of options. She nodded to show that she understood and placed her empty tea cup down on his desk.

"I'll tell Connor where she is," she said. "It'll be something to know she's alive, even if she is in one of the camps."

# Time is out of Joint

_Time is out of joint, oh cursed spite_

_  
That ever I was born to put it right.  
_

William Shakespeare - Hamlet

"Are you all right?" Helen hated herself for asking. It wasn't as if she particularly cared about Connor, but she needed him focused and effective. He was sitting beside her in the 4x4, completely silent.

He waggled his head. It was half a neck stretch and half a nod. "I'll manage. At least she's still alive, eh?" He offered up the ghost of a smile.

Helen nodded curtly. "Lester will do what he can. We'll have her back with the team before you know it."

She felt Connor's eyes on her as she drove along. "You don't really believe that, do you?"

Helen glanced back in his direction, debated several answers and then turned and looked at the road. She's always prided herself on being brutal with the truth when it was necessary. She couldn't really see the need at the moment, but she didn't want to risk Connor catching her in a lie.

"That's what I thought," he said quietly.

"Where are we heading? Any idea?" Helen decided to change the topic of conversation.

"Grange Road Park. It's a green space. Couple of roads along on the right."

It wasn't a very large park: a playing field, a few trees and a tiny car park. It was dominated by a large playground that seemed much too big for the space. The anomaly glinted clear and bright above the playing field. Helen parked in one of the few spaces. The second 4x4 with the soldiers in it, pulled up next to her.

Helen looked across at the eldest Slater as he got down from the truck. "Someone needs to check the trees."

He nodded, "Slater Two and Three, take Jackson and Hobbes. Check out the treeline. Mitcham, you're with me. Professor Cutter and Mr. Temple here need to check out the anomaly."

Helen eyed up Lieutenant Mitcham. She'd not really met him before; he'd been transferred to the ARC in the past couple of weeks, part of a tranche of new faces bolstering the depleted ranks of the soldiery. He was a small, compact man with jet black hair and blue-grey eyes. She didn't think Slater knew him and wondered why Slater had him with the anomaly party, instead of one of the other Slaters. Bringing him with them was a problem, it prevented her talking to Slater and, just as she had become used to taking tea with Lester, she had become used to small moments of understanding with Slater in the field.

And then, like a screen sliding away in her mind she realised that Lucia must have placed Mitcham with the squad. Any attempt to prevent him watching her was bound to make Lucia suspicious, therefore Slater wasn't making any attempt.

That thought wasn't going to stop her from trying something though.

As they approached the anomaly Helen spotted the trackway. A two-footed animal with an enlarged claw was heading out towards the trees.

"What are you looking at?" asked Slater.

"Something came out of the anomaly."

"What kind of something?" Connor looked down at the tracks.

"Two feet, you can tell by the locomotor pattern and see this indentation here?" Helen realised she was succumbing to the desire to lecture.

"Yes?" Connor was crouched beside her, his laptop already open.

"It's deeper than the others, that suggests a longer claw of some kind."

"Raptors! Raptors have come out of the anomaly!" There was a tone of excitement in Connor's voice. Abby's plight was temporarily forgotten.

Helen straightened up and surveyed the field. In some ways she admired his ability to focus, she'd lost it long ago. If you get too wrapped up in one thing you lose your sense of where the threats may be coming from. She scanned the surroundings more from habit than anything else. She was looking directly at the treeline when the raptor broke cover and headed towards them. It was small, probably about a foot in height, and covered with vivid green, fronded feathers.

Mitcham raised his gun.

"Don't shoot unless absolutely necessary!" ordered Slater. He was already raising the tranquiliser rifle but the creature was moving too fast. Helen grabbed Connor by the arm and headed for the playground at a run.

It was an adventure style playground with large wooden huts suspended up ladders and ropes. Thankfully it was a cold, overcast day and there didn't appear to be anyone around. Helen picked the platform that seemed least accessible to raptors and ran towards it, pausing at the foot of the rope ladder.

"Connor, get up here!" she shouted. "Slater, go with him. Mitcham you're with me."

Then she ran towards the anomaly. It was too far to reach, but hopefully Mitcham wouldn't realise that.

Her feet pounded over bark chippings and then out onto muddy grass.

"We're not going to make it!" shouted Mitcham behind her.

"Have you got a tranquiliser gun?" she returned. She knew he hadn't.

"No! Should I shoot it?"

"No! Only as a last resort. Lucia's orders. OK! Split!" she shouted. "You head for that zip wire. Get out of reach. Attract its attention. I'll double-back to Slater."

Mitcham obediently ran towards the zip wire, shouting and flapping his arms as he went. Helen was impressed. The man was obviously a natural decoy.

She jogged back towards the tree house containing Connor and Slater. Once she was close enough to make it safely at a run. She began shouting in turn.

"Oi! Over here!"

Mitcham was already perched precariously on top of the zip wire frame. He immediately shut up and Helen jumped and shouted again, attracting the raptor's attention. Once it was running towards her she grabbed hold of the rope ladder and began to climb.

She scrambled up onto the platform, alone with Slater and Connor. She was rather pleased with herself.

"So what is it?" asked the Slater, pointing at the raptor.

"Bambiraptor, one of the smaller raptors and it's on its own," said Helen.

"Bambiraptor? You're not serious! It's called a _Bambi_raptor?"

"It's true!" said Connor. "Named after the Disney character."

Slater snorted. It sounded dismissive. Helen wasn't too keen on cute names herself.

"Tranquilise the raptor," said Helen. "Then we'll wait for it to go to sleep. To be honest, it's small enough that you could probably rugby tackle it, but I don't want to risk those claws."

Slater grunted and peered down through the slats of the climbing frame as the creature ran around the base. It was obviously a tricky shot. She watched him take his time as the thing rushed about. When he finally took the shot, Slater hit the bambiraptor in the muscled part of the haunch.

Then he sat back and stared thoughtfully at Helen. "So, do you have a plan yet?"

Helen was disconcerted by the direct question. She narrowed her eyes at Slater, but she didn't have a lot of choice. She was going to need him.

"Lucia changed everything when she got Stephen to go public with the anomalies. That was about six months ago. I want to change history; take Lucia out of the picture. That means going back at least six months, preferably a little longer and then finding a way to interfere."

"You've got an anomaly map," said Connor. "Shouldn't be too hard to find your way there, especially if Slater leads the team to bring you back.

"He has a point," said Slater.

"No anomalies are going to open for a while that link up in the right way. We're going to have to sit it out for a few more months."

"I'm not sure we have months," said Connor. "Lucia doesn't trust you. As soon as she thinks she's got a more reliable team trained up, you'll get removed."

"We'll be fine if we don't get over-excited. We just have to keep calm and sit it out."

"Lucia must have a second map," said Connor. "She must know when to activate that attractor of hers. We should get hold of it."

"I agree with him," said Slater suddenly. "You can't afford to wait. I've lived through this once already. She'll be moving against you by the end of the year if it plays out the same way."

Helen took a deep breath and looked at her unlikely co-conspirators. "OK, so how do we get hold of this map of hers?"

Connor grinned and wiggled his fingers at her.

* * *

"How did you know about this place?" whispered Connor. They were in the echoing chambers of a new build office building. Small open plan offices with five or six desks each opened off a long corridor. The office workers weren't due in until the next day, but the computer system was all linked up and there were several generic test accounts on the system.

They'd picked an office at random, one of the ones on the top floor to minimize the risk of their torches being seen from the street.

"Don't ask because I'm not telling you. You sure you can hack into that ARC lab? I thought it was all off Internet."

"Don't ask because I'm not telling you either. Well not any names. I got someone to plug in one of those mobile phone dongles. Chances are it'll get found in the morning. This is our one shot."

Helen nodded curtly. She'd got the security pass, the username and password to one of the test accounts through a university friend who now worked for the company. It hadn't been too difficult. He'd been a little blinded by the celebrity and her suggestions of an old infatuation. Of course, she hadn't told him what it would be for, and things would probably go badly for him once it was all uncovered. She hoped he would be scared enough not to let on that he had given out the information. By then, with luck, it would be too late to stop her changing things.

Without thinking she placed a hand on Connor's shoulder, just as he was about to sit down.

"What?" he asked.

"Have you thought this through?" She hated herself for asking. Why should she care whether Connor understood what he was doing or not. But she had to admit she was curious. She knew how paranoid Nick had been about changing history and how much Connor had hero-worshipped him. Something in her just had to know.

"What? You mean hacking into a highly secret government database? Bit late to ask, don't you think? Yeah, I realise the consequences."

"It won't rescue Abby, not as such, even if I succeed. You realise that?"

Connor looked up at her. It was too dark to read his expression clearly but she thought it was one of slight surprise.

"Yeah, I understand how this works. Well I understand how it doesn't. I'm not sure what will happen to this time line if you go back. But it seems clear to me that Lucia deliberately tampered with things. Putting that back, well, I think it's what... I think it's the right thing."

He'd been going to say it was what Nick would have done. Helen found herself irritated. "Will you come with me?" she asked. It was mostly out of curiosity. It wasn't really a bid to steal his loyalty.

"Nah! I'll stay here. If whatever you do doesn't actually fix this, well, there's no one else to fight Abby's corner."

"What if I ordered you to come with me?"

He looked at her again and then turned back to the screen. "Well, we'd have a problem, but you're not going to."

"What makes you say that?"

"Do you have a good reason to make me leave Abby behind?"

"No."

"Well then, you're not going to order to do it, are you?"

Helen stared at the back of Connor's head in surprise. His confidence unnerved her. It was like seeing herself reflected in a distorting mirror. She didn't recognise the leader Connor thought he saw. She dismissed the thought.

"Let's make this quick," she whispered.

Connor snorted. He was already logging into the systems. "I can't type properly in these latex gloves," he complained.

"Yes you can, now get on with it."

Helen didn't really think a lack of fingerprints would protect Connor. They'd trace the security pass back to her friend eventually. Sooner or later he would admit to handing it out and not long after that he would mention her name. Lucia would then know who did the hacking. However, Helen saw no reason to give Lucia the clues before she had worked for them.

"I'm in," said Connor.

"That was fast."

"The machines aren't supposed to be on the Internet, so the security is more focused on making sure the people who can access them physically have the right clearance."

"Well they obviously slipped up there. I'm not going to ask how you suborned one of them."

In the light from the computer screen Connor flushed a startling shade of red which make Helen rapidly re-evaluate the methods available to him, and quite how ruthless he might be prepared to be in order to protect Abby.

Instinctively she reached out and squeezed his arm. "You're doing the right thing."

"I hope so. She was nice. I don't like to think of her getting into trouble."

Helen turned to look back at the screen. Connor appeared to be searching folders for keywords.

"Got it!" he announced. "Anomaly projection data. I'm downloading it now."

At that moment the office was suddenly flooded with light.

"Attention! Attention! Lay down your weapons!" A loud voice chimed through the speakers. It sounded like Slater.

Connor quickly glanced at the screen and then pulled out the data stick he'd plugged into the computer and handed it to Helen. Then he swapped in another and started copying the file across again.

"Go!" he whispered. "I'll stay here and pretend it was just me."

Helen took the data stick and ran. As she emerged into the corridor strong hands grabbed her and she found herself shoved into some form of cupboard. It was Slater.

"Stay here," he hissed.

"What?"

"Stay here. I'll cover for you. Your bloody contact tipped Lucia the wink."

The door slammed and she heard footsteps in the corridor. "Looks like they're still in the office," she heard Slater say. "Altogether, guys!"

She heard shouting and then the sound of shots.

* * *

When Slater came for her two hours later, Helen very carefully didn't ask what had happened to Connor.

He looked her in the eye. "Can't have anyone who knows I'm talking to you falling into Lucia's hands."

Helen shrugged. It wasn't as if she had cared anyway. Connor had served his purpose. She had the data she needed.

"I'm going to disappear," she said. "How do I contact you?"

Wordlessly he handed over a mobile phone. Then he glanced at his watch. "I'm going to talk to the guard out the back for five minutes. Use your time well."

Then he was gone.

Helen took a deep breath. She could see the logic of his reasoning. She schooled her thoughts back to the old detachment. She was starting to show the kind of weakness Nick had so easily succumbed to. She had the data, she repeated to herself. She didn't need Connor any more.

She checked her watch and then took the emergency stairs back to the ground floor. The whole place felt empty and quiet. Much more so than it had been when she entered. Of course then she had had Connor babbling away in her ear in a whisper. Now she was alone, which was good. Connor attracted too much attention.

She had a small crowbar in her backpack and used it to lever up the bottom of the window. They'd been fitted on the cheap and it popped out of the frame with ease. Helen slipped out and into one of the generic shrubs that were newly planted in the grounds. She froze as footsteps approached. Two special forces soldiers, invisible in their black uniforms, but fortunately not making the effort to be quiet.

"Was that window levered open before?" she heard one ask.

Helen dropped her face into the ground, unwilling to risk the paleness of her skin or the light reflecting from her eyes. She willed her breathing and heart rate to be long and slow.

"Not sure. I'll radio the boss."

Helen listened to a burst of static. "You there, Boss?"

"What is it?" It was Slater's voice.

"We've got an open window here. Someone's levered it out of the frame."

"That'll explain how Helen got out. Go back the way you came and try not to disturb anything. I'll see if any of the trackers can make something of it."

"Got you, Boss."

Helen listened as the soldiers withdrew and then she slithered on through the bushes and down into the small piece of national forestry that sat at the back of the office building.

* * *

Helen spent three weeks in a bedsit in Burton-on-Trent. It did not improve her temper. She didn't dare use credit cards so was reduced to one of the small supplies of cash she still compulsively hid around the country and the tiny netbook that she'd had in her pack on the raid. Its processing power was zero and it didn't have any of the fancy mapping software the ARC used. She had to figure out a route the old-fashioned way, by hand.

The mental discipline was comforting. Long practice let her work from her notes, and the data on the small stick Connor had thrust into her hands. She worked as she always had, hard and rigorous and careful, enforcing long hours on herself. After three weeks of plotting, watching for patterns to emerge from the tangle of data points, it paid off. A thin skein of opportunity that would take her through the Permian and to the anomaly junction and from there a short hop across the Cretaceous and back five years. It was a dangerous journey and the timing would be tight, but it was all she had.

She opened up the phone Slater had given her and dialled the one number programmed into its memory.

"I'm here." Slater's tone was gruff. It warned her to be quick and anonymous.

"I need to get into the basement of an office block, in the Docklands. 10pm, two weeks tomorrow."

"I'll arrange it. Text me the address. I'll meet you there 9.55pm."

Then he hung up. Helen scowled at the phone and texted the address.

Slater was altogether too confident and was acting way too much like he was in charge. Thoughtfully Helen dialled a second number, one that she had apparently memorised, almost by accident, in six months of summoning a PR guru to handle the public.

* * *

Helen watched the office block from a rooftop across the street. It had been done discreetly, but the place had been locked tight all day. The tiny sound of light footsteps her caused her to turn round, reaching for a nonexistent weapon. It was all three Slaters, anonymous in black combat fatigues. They were grim-faced and armed. They looked like an army, ugly and ruthless.

"Thinking I'd betrayed you?" asked the eldest.

"The thought had crossed my mind? What's going on down there?"

"I'm guessing you're not the only person who can plot a map with that anomaly data. Lucia has had the place locked up tight."

Helen considered her options. She had no more information than Lucia did. Any route she could find, Lucia could find as well. "There won't be any better opportunities. Is Lester still in charge of the armed response to anomalies?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't count on the loyalty of the soldiers down there."

"But he can send in a team, once the anomaly opens. A team consisting of the three of you and someone from the science team."

"I don't trust Lester."

"I do." Helen turned to look down at the building, pleased to have the upper hand in this conversation, "Besides, it is already done."

* * *

"You didn't have to come in person." Helen complained when she met up with Lester.

His mouth was drawn in a small tight line. "Sometimes you have to throw all your resources into one last ditch attempt."

Wordlessly Jenny held out a bag. "Disguise," she said shortly. "Wig, glasses and some mouth pads. They've got facial recognition. You need to distort your features."

"Keep in the middle of the group," advised Slater.

"Anomaly's been open half an hour," said Helen. "Shall we go?"

They moved as a unit towards the entrance to the office block. Lester and Jenny walked in front, Helen was in the middle, the three Slaters surrounded her. Jenny was on the phone. Helen realised she was going through the motions of organising an anomaly response.

They marched up to the doorway. "Anomaly response team!" Jenny flashed a dangerous smile. "You're to let us in to check the anomaly. I've got the Home Secretary on the phone." She handed the mobile over to the guard on the door.

Moments later they were in. "We don't have long," said Jenny quietly. "Lucia will find out sooner or later that I've been by-passing her. Probably sooner."

"Sooner," said Slater. "The search and destroy has just come over the military channel."

"Careless of them to broadcast the fact," muttered Lester.

"We're not going anywhere."

Helen shrugged. "Let's get to the basement. Once we're through the anomaly things change."

"Only if Lucia hasn't got a reception party waiting for you," observed Lester.

"Unlikely, I'm working from the same map she is. No real way for her to get people there, unless she had this planned from six months back."

"I wish I had your faith."

Helen had no answer to that. She had always maintained that faith was a psychological prop for the weak-willed. She wondered, briefly, if Lester knew that, but couldn't tell from the back of his head.

The narrow staircase they were descending opened out into a cramped corridor.

"Where from here?" asked Slater.

Helen switched on her anomaly detector. "No signal," she reported anxiously.

"It's a trap!" said Slater.

Helen took a deep breath. "Unlikely, Lucia would have had to have been psychic to plant that particular information at just the right time. Chances are the information from her father is inaccurate. We give it a little longer."

"No wonder they put out the search and destroy so quickly," muttered Jenny. "I just bluffed our way into a nonexistent anomaly."

"Lucia was flushing out her enemies," said Lester drily. "How resourceful of her."

"So she did have this planned," said Slater. "We should fight our way out."

"No, Helen's right. She's good, but not that good." Lester's tone of authority was absolute. "She's just capitalising on the miss-step. We can still do this. We need to delay the soldiers. I want a plan. Slater?"

"Two staircases," said Slater. "If we're sure we're not going anywhere except through the anomaly, I can bring them down."

Lester's eyebrows shot up. "You're carrying explosives?"

"I like to be prepared."

Helen nodded. "Do it! Let's buy ourselves as much time as we can."

* * *

The Slaters proved to be remarkably well prepared. In less than five minutes both staircases were piles of so much rubble, one of which conveniently blocked the entrance to the corridor. Even once the special forces abseiled down that hole they wouldn't be able to get in.

"What happens now?" asked Jenny.

"Standard protocol would be to sit tight upstairs and wait for us to try to negotiate our way out," observed Lester.

"Lucia doesn't have time to wait on standard protocol," said Helen.

"I'm aware of that, yes. I anticipate it will be messy. Captain Slater, I would appreciate it if I could borrow some of your extensive armoury. I notice you are carrying _two_ M4s which seems a little excessive."

Slater frowned and then handed over the gun. "Do you know how to use this thing."

"You'd be surprised."

"I've had some training too," said Jenny suddenly. "Clay pigeon shooting and I've been practicing small arms."

This time Slater just nodded and produced a small Glock from his belt. Jenny checked it over with an alarming degree of professionalism. Helen admired her calm and efficiency. She really should have made more use of Jenny.

Slater looked upwards. Helen followed his gaze and then realised he was listening. The sounds of booted feet up above them and shouted orders had changed. Slater glanced at one of his younger selves and nodded. The man nipped into the remaining stairwell. There was a burst of automatic weapons' fire and then he returned.

"They're going to abseil down. I can't get a clear shot."

Helen looked at her detector, the dials were beginning to swing. "An anomaly is opening. I think Lucia's father was an hour out."

"Where is it?" asked Lester.

Helen swung the detector in an arc around her and watched as the dials juddered and jerked. "In there, I think." She gestured to a small room.

"The anomaly's not open yet though?" asked Jenny.

"No, there's obviously some additional activity before one opens that these detectors can pick up."

"Connor would have been fascinated," observed Lester.

Helen glanced at him sharply. Lester was staring hard at the eldest Slater who just shrugged and said, "I couldn't afford to have him shooting his mouth off."

Looking at the expression on Jenny's face, Helen concluded she was going to have a tough time preventing her team from killing each other on their way back through history.

"Right," said Slater. "Everyone into the room. We'll barricade ourselves in. That'll buy us more time."

"Not enough," said Lester. "I think I'll stay out here."

"What?" Helen was brought up short.

"Two layer defence. First they have to get down the corridor and then into the room." Lester kicked over one of the filing cabinets propped against the walls. "I'll use this for cover."

"The anomaly will open any minute. There's no point in needless heroics." Helen had thought better of Lester than this.

"The anomaly is no good to you if Lucia's forces come through it seconds after you do. Unless you think you can order Slater here to stay behind, you're out of options, Helen."

Helen looked at the eldest Slater.

"You've got a volunteer," he said. "You don't need me. But he's right. Someone needs to lay covering fire down the corridor. Preferably two someones."

There was a sharp silence. Helen realised that the Slaters were looking at Jenny. The battle of wills was palpable. She had two prehistoric periods to walk through, at high speed. Jenny was in heels and the Slaters were armed soldiers.

"Jenny, can you stay too?"

Jenny turned and glared at her.

"Please," Helen found herself saying and realised, with a shock, that the request was genuine.

"You'd better take this," Slater handed Jenny a second M4.

Jenny took it and the stalked right up to Helen, staring her hard in the eye. "Don't fail," was all she said.

"I promise."

"Anomaly's open!" shouted the youngest Slater.

"Time to go!" the eldest grabbed Helen's arm and began to steer her into the room. She shrugged off the touch. She was in control of this situation. It was all going according to plan. She didn't need Jenny, or Lester.

The anomaly hung glittering before them. Helen didn't look back as she went through, the three Slaters on her heels.

* * *

"Why are you staying?" Jenny couldn't help asking as she crouched uncomfortably beside Lester.

"Running away never suited me. Some of this mess is my responsibility."

Jenny considered that. "How much good are we really going to do here?"

"We buy time. That's really all we can do. Do you mind if I ask why you're helping? It surprises me that you're assisting in an attempt to change history, given your background."

"What if Helen changes history and brings Claudia back? Someone how I doubt she'll try that."

Lester's chuckle was dry. "She isn't as sure of what she's doing as she let's on."

There was a sound of shouting and booted feet coming from the stairwell. Jenny aimed the M4 at the entrance and sighted along it.

"If Helen finds either a Claudia Brown or a Jenny Lewis back there then I hope whichever of them she meets will give her a run for her money."

Lester smiled thinly. "I have no doubt they will."

Then there was a crash and the door at the end of the corridor fell off its hinges, in a cloud of smoke and dust.

"Let's buy some time then," said Jenny. As the first dim shape emerged through the haze, she placed a finger on the trigger and opened fire.

**2006**

The sniper rifle was a sleek and dangerous looking piece of equipment. Helen had been practicing with it for weeks and it still sent strange shivers through her. It was something about the distance and the impersonality of it. She was used to fighting up close and personal, ruthless but direct, where you could see the pain and the blood. She'd examined her reactions to the gun with anthropological interest and had now them filed away for later consideration. They wouldn't be allowed to affect her actions.

"Here she is, right on time," said Slater. He stood at her elbow, disapproving rather obviously of her decision to take the shot herself.

Helen sighted down the gun at Lucia Wright as she crossed the road from the tube station. She was on her way to be briefed by Sir James Lester, Home Office, on the ramifications of events in the Forest of Dean. This was where it had all started.

Lucia paused outside a newsagents', waiting in a line. Maybe she was buying a paper or perhaps she had a secret smoking vice. It was the perfect shot. Helen lined up carefully. She placed her finger on the trigger. If she took this shot everything would turn out right... probably. Nick would survive. Stephen wouldn't have to take over the team. They would never become her team. Abby would never show those small moments of gratitude and understanding. Connor would never look at her with those irritating puppy dog eyes, wanting direction. Jenny would never treat her with that calm respect that masked steadfast enmity. She'd never won Jenny over, now she wouldn't get the chance. There would be no mornings in James Lester's office drinking tea in unspoken understanding of their position.

"You going to take the shot or not?" asked Slater.

Helen pulled the trigger. She hadn't wanted a team anyway. It wasn't as if she had _liked_ them. She watched Lucia fall and the crowd begin to panic, but she was already moving rapidly away. They had an anomaly to reach before the police caught up with them.

**2010**

When Lucia Wright, following angrily and swiftly behind her men stepped over the bodies and into the small storage space, it was just in time to see the anomaly stutter and wink out of existence.

Then time twisted and folded.

Feet came running.

"Aww! It's gone. I almost had the signal."

"Not to worry, lad. It's almost bound to have been down in the lower levels somewhere. Lieutenant Lyle, I'm going to check down there. I imagine you'll insist on coming with me."

The voices echoed down the stair wells. Sightless eyes stared up at the ceiling, deaths already ravelling away into nothing.

"You bet, Professor."

"And remember..."

"You don't have to remind me. Don't harm anything, unless I have too. Ditzy, take the second team and check the other staircase."

The sounds bounced off the walls. There were no signs of a struggle or a fight. No footprints in the dust. The filing cabinet was back in it's place against the wall.

"Abby, Connor, go with them and be careful."

When the two teams swept through the basement there was nothing of interest to be seen.


End file.
